With Stardock, yeah, physical copies are superior to digital, since they give away all the same capabilities.  However, there is something to be said for being able to download it whenever you want.

You also can't just sell your physical copy either, the license is tied into your account, your buyer either has to go to other sources to get updates, or is stuck playing the out of the box version.

I would say it depends on the requirements the publisher is making of you which one is better.  I prefer Stardock's ease of use to the other ones I've seen, so I'd side with them over a physical product from another any day unless theirs came with the same hassle anyway.

Let's face it.  The digital download has the same rights as the retail box, at least for Stardock.  You can download the install file and set it up on a computer without an internet connection (at least for Gal Civ, not sure about other titles).   And you can even have the patches update if you are comfoprtable with whoever you sell it to knowing your email and password. 

As a long time computer user, I have been burned by games before.  The approach Stardock uses is reasonable.  Yes, I would like to be able to sell the game when I get tired of it.  If I could do that I might get a little bit of my money back.  But, from past experience, if the game is any good I'll go back to it after a while.  And if they did let you sell the game, how much more would it cost when you first buy it?

Just a few things to think about.

Broosbee its not so much about selling for me, its more that I like to give my old games like monkey island to my younger cousins who were born after it got released or System Shock 2 to friends who think halflife had a good story.

Yah I could give my friend the account data but then he would have access to all my games, not just the one I want to burrow, or I could set up a new account for every purchase I make.

For Stardock games there really isn't much of a difference between retail /online as you need impulse to patch (which I think is a good idea to protect their games, however I hope that that is mentioned on the box).

But for games from other publishers sold via Impulse there is a difference.

I that it interesting that yo can buy a SoaSE license from the Stardock store for users who may have bought second-hand or been given the game.  Everyone's a winner.

Well, I am going to use Impulse to upload Entrenchment (but only because it's not on a disk/retail).  But I'm paranoid about not getting a box to hold.  I just finally got my GCII game reregistered, after getting a new computer (and a new email address).  Without being able to send in a picture of my receit/disk/box, I'm 99% sure I'd never have got it re-registered ever again.

I guess your only "paranoid" if your wrong. . .

2) This isn't a Stardock game he's talking about; it's Company of Heroes. A retail edition of that updates itself before asking for your account info. So yes, resale is plenty viable.

I think you're confused a bit here. If you buy a digital download, it registers itself on your account automatically. As long as you have your account, you never have to re-register anything.

I think as a marketing tool it would be wise for a company to allow transfers however something like that is probably years away from being implemented since the DDS industry is basically in the formative process. With that said I think a minor transfer fee should be charged for such a service.

If you havd read correctly his post, you would have seen that he has also changed e-mail. And since he didn't have any longer access to his old e-mail, he need some physical proof to show that he is the first user of his copy instead of a second hand user as he wanted to tranfer his serial ID between e-mails

Oops That's what I get for posting late in the evening. But even then, SD has the sale records if it was a digital copy

It still sounds like PurplePaladin went a very round-about way of doing it. Wouldn't it have just been easier to merge e-mail addresses, or just change the account's e-mail address instead of trying to transfer serials to a new account? Neither of the two options above require any proof of purchase since it doesn't deal with products directly.

There's a key bit of mistaken reasoning in the original poster's argument:  It's not digital stores that determine that we're not going to respect copies of games sold via competitors' stores (at least in the case of Impulse - can't speak for others), it's the publishers.  The publisher has to allow us to do this, and thus far, none have.

Yarlen, I didn't blame you for that, I am not even blaming anyone if they decide to have the games nontransferable (although its still a bit strange as all other purchases with some exceptions like medicine are freely tradeable). I just dislike a lot that there is a difference between buying the game in a store and buying it online. If I for example would buy sins online, I can't give it away to a friend. If I buy it in a shop I can. If there was a system to prevent that I give my shop copy away (however you want to achieve that) I wouldn't have a reason to not buy it online but as it is now there is a reason to do so. (Not saying I would like if it was this way but I hate inconsistencies)

TheBigOne - quite a few publishers use systems that achieve that end. Going this route ends with Starforce and 3 activation limits - those things don't really stop pirates, but they kill the used game market. Non-transferable online purchases do the same thing, but without the horrible side effects.

If I have to choose I rather not be able to sell my used game but have the ability to get the game anywhere and to be able to play without a cd/dvd in my drive.

In a perfect world no protection at all but that is not going to happen, like going to bed without looking your doors, it's nto something we do generally now days.

If you got the time you can archive the game via Impulse and burn both on a cd. And if you care about the muliplayer you only need to give him your multiplayer account for the game. At least this should work for SoSE.